No Christmas miracles for Mega Millions players; The jackpot increases to $1.15 billion

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — Well, it looks like Santa didn’t leave any billion-dollar Mega Millions tickets under the Christmas trees this year. Nobody matched all six winning numbers on Tuesday evening, which catapulted Friday’s winnings even further into the seven-figure range.

Shortly before the drawing on Christmas Eve, lottery officials announced that the evening’s winnings had reached $1 billion. With no one winning the jackpot, Friday’s drawing is now worth an estimated $1.15 billion, and that value could be even higher by the end of the week.

“We know that many people will likely receive tickets to Friday’s drawing as Christmas gifts, and what a gift that would be to end up with a ticket worth $1.15 billion,” said Joshua Johnston, executive Director of the Mega Millions Consortium.

The current Mega Millions jackpot is now the largest in 2024, surpassing a March drawing in which the owner of a ticket sold in New Jersey won a $1.128 billion prize. Just over four months ago, a ticket sold in Texas scored a major hit, valued at $810 million.

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It is now the fifth largest Mega Millions jackpot of all time. Lottery officials noted that if no one wins Friday’s game and New Year’s Eve drawing, there would only be three jackpot winners in all of 2024. That would be the lowest total since the game began in 2024.

However, they also noted that ten jackpot winning tickets were sold in 2023, marking the highest total since the major changes to Mega Millions in 2013.

Tuesday’s Mega Millions drawing

The winning numbers on Tuesday evening were: 11, 14, 38, 45, 46 and the Mega Ball was 3

The Megaplier was 3x

Although no one won the jackpot, four tickets gave all five white balls, which equals one million dollars.

CBS12 News is your official Florida lottery station.

You can watch the Mega Millions drawing live on CBS12 News on Friday at 11 p.m

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